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Asian leaders agree to help each other in economic crisis

Article published on the 2008-12-13 Latest update 2008-12-13 13:22 TU

Japanese Prime Minister Aso (C) shakes hands with Chinese Premier Wen (L) and South Korean President Lee (Credit: Reuters)

Japanese Prime Minister Aso (C) shakes hands with Chinese Premier Wen (L) and South Korean President Lee
(Credit: Reuters)

Regional rivals Japan, China and South Korea met for a rare joint summit in Fukuoka, Japan on Saturday, pledging to band together to save Asia from the global economic crisis. Asia is "expected to play a role as the centre of world economic growth in order to reverse the downward trend of the world economy," they said in a statement. The leaders called for an urgent capital infusion into the Asian Development Bank.

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Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso met with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak in his home district of Fukoka to "strengthen cooperation" to combat the crisis.

Japan, China and South Korea make up three-quarters of Asia's gross domestic product (GDP).

The three also called for the quick set-up of a regional fund to prevent further crises. A fund had been agreed to during the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) summit in October. At the time, more attention was given to the fact that the countries, who have had historic rocky ties, met and agreed on a plan of action.

"This is a significant meeting," correspondent Julian Ryall told RFI from Tokyo. "Particularly now with the world in economic straits that it is, I think there is a realization in the region that  not only do they need to get on economically, but also they all need to get along as neighbours."

China and South Korea, which had long considered Japan as being unrepentant of its World War II aggression, had refused to meet with Tokyo officials until 2006.

The three powers did agree on Saturday that they regretted that North Korea had failed to agree to specific steps regarding verifying its nuclear program.

US State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack said that the countries involved in the talks geared towards disarmament of the Korean Peninsula -- Japan, Russia, China, US, and South Korea-- had agreed that future fuel shipments would not be delivered until there was progress from Pyongyang.

An agreement last year outlined that up to one million tons of fuel was be given to the reclusive country in exchange for their efforts to denuclearise. The North Koreans have been given roughly half of the fuel already.